BHS project: Religious preachers have a big role on health awareness

Religious preachers during the training course that focuses on how they are very effective members in society who can able to aware people on health issues related maternal and child.

Family planning, reproductive health, maternal and child health are all suffering from a dire lack of attention. In order to address this situation, the Basic Health Service (BHS) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) focused on raising people’s health awareness through the work of mosque preachers and religious workers in five targeted provinces, namely Marib, Al-Jawf, Amran, Shabwa and Sa’adah.

The BHS has provided intensive training courses in each of Amran, Shabwa and Marib provinces. The past week it held a training course for mosque preachers in al- Jawf province, thus providing preachers with information on how to deal with social issues such as birth control.

Before the penultimate session for al-Jawf preachers that was scheduled to be held in the province of Marib, the BHS sent preachers from all five targeted governorates to Cairo in order to be inspired and learn from the Egyptian experience in this regard.

The Statistics of the project say that the program started two training sessions for preaches who totaled thirty trainees in both sessions. The two sessions were held in Egypt in 2006. The statistics also added that training began in the provinces during the same year in five sessions, four of them directed to religious preachers and one session for women preachers; in total the sessions reunited 75 religious preachers.

The BHS statistics also mentioned that in the mid-year of 2007, male and women religious preachers implemented more than 2000 activities, and the number of beneficiaries of the program in the targeted provinces reached to 200,000 people, trained in subjects related to health awareness until mid-2008.

Amar al-Nagar, coordinator of religious scholars program at the BHS said that “there was apprehension initially, whether by the community’s scholars or preachers or by families who did not accept the idea, but there were some other good convictions for most of them.”

Results have been good so far and this is reflected through the evaluation meetings, which reached 12 meetings for experts who carried out activities in the field, al-Najar said. "Then, we also offer guiding publications and we distributed 100,000 brochures related to family issues and breastfeeding," he added.

The BHS also works with the Social Guidance Foundation to provide counseling opinions on family planning and reproductive health. "We have a set of ideas for the continuation of religious workers in the targeted provinces and will work a diary containing messages of health awareness," said al-Najar.

Ahmed al-Sallahi, coach and coordinator of programs in the BHS project said that “this program is an urgent need for people in the targeted provinces because life is part of religion, and we must play this role through awareness messages, posters and publications to ensure access to people to improve health status in general.”

“We will continue to communicate despite the completion of male and female preachers in the province of Marib, Shabwa, and Amran and now in Jawf,” al-Sallahi added. “This is not confined to preach in mosques, but it also affects the guidance of the family, debating a kind of topics that create social awareness. We meet with our preachers and discuss what has been done and we do networking with stakeholders to provide the requirements needed by the community as we are discussing," he stated.

Some communities believe that family planning contradicts religion. Though this thinking is attributed to religion, but it is not religious belief, moreover it contradicts religious values.

Sheikh Yahia al-Najar, who addressed the course, organized the activities for the religious guides and mosque preachers in al-Jawf and Marib governorates saying that, “the religious guides and mosque preachers are responsible for promoting family planning awareness and stressing children and maternal safety. This lays an extra burden on the religious preachers to convey the message for the need of keeping a distance between the births.” 

“The mosque preachers and the religious guides have a religious obligation before God and the community to explain that the family planning issue is not against religion, and that it is the responsibility of both, man and woman,” said al-Najar.

The training course was organized in Marib, for a number of reasons, on top of them the lack of lodging for the training team. The message conveyed to the participants is similar to the ones presented in previous courses. 

The participants were showing enthusiasm to get the message and communicate it to the beneficiaries in order to persuade them.

Mohammed Saleh Ahmed al-Yazji, preacher of the al-Batha mosque in Barat district, said that “this course is a great advantage to us because their notions agree with the Islamic Sharia' law and does not contradict Islamic religion. Our field experience shows that the idea finds community acceptance,” added al-Yazji. 

Mohammed al-Ansi, preacher of al-Mo'taq mosque at Barat al-Marashi in al-Jawf, said that the course succeeded in eliminating rumors and people's doubts. “There were also rumors that pregnancy happens despite the coil and that the contraceptives cause bleeding,” he added.  

“The courses focus, which denoted that the rumor will be unsuccessful if there are continuous awareness campaigns, is quite true,” al-Ansi concluded. 

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